Columbus Monuments Pages

Cristóbal Colón en el Parque El Calvario

Christopher Columbus in the El Calvario Park

Annotation

For a hundred and ten years, Turini´s statue of Columbus traditionally marked the northern entrance of the Parque El Calvario, with the Admiral´s arm pointing at the city that lies at his feet. This sculpture, together with the park´s rich sculpture collection, was designated as a National Good of Cultural Interest by the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural in 2009. Nevertheless, the strong and constant political speeches thrown from the presidency of the Republic against 'Colonialism', brought as a consequence that: "members of the collective group Coordinadora Popular de Caracas, representing -as they said- thirty-six ethnic groups of the country, climbed on the pedestal of Columbus at El Calvario and covered the statue with a white sheet. Simultaneously, they introduced before the Alcaldía de Caracas a petition: that the statue should be removed from there and that in its place was to be erected one of some Indian chief". Shortly after, Fundapatrimonio removed the statue of Columbus from its pedestal saying than "it shouldn´t continue being worshipped anymore." And there stood the empty pedestal, to the surprise of the passersby, while the Columbus statue is kept away somewhere, and the citizens of Caracas ignore its whereabouts. In the last days of February 2010, and with a great public act, the President and the Mayor of Caracas unveiled on the same place a statue of Venezuela´s Federal War hero, Ezequiel Zamora.